Where did our shareholders go? asks West Coast lime works

Thursday 29th March 2012

Koiterangi Lime Co, a lime works established by a group of farmers near Hokitika in 1923, has embarked on a national search for its aging shareholders in an effort to tidy up its register.

Koiterangi serves just a single valley, producing seven to 14 tonnes a year of lime that’s used as a top-dressing to reduce the acidity of pasture, encouraging grass growth.

The company is running advertisements in New Zealand daily newspapers offering to buy back or cancel stock held by ‘non-active’ shareholders who have left the district or may even have died. They’re being given the option to sell their shares back to the company for $5 apiece or to allow the company to cancel their holding.

“Basically we are tidying up the share register,” said Steven Keenan, chairman of Koiterangi. “We have tried our best but there are some people we will never get in touch with unless we can contact God.”

Some shareholders have left the district or on-sold their properties, including some who had owned farms in the district dating back 40 to 50 years, Keenan said.

Keenan said the lime works is only active for six months of the year in summer and relies on voluntary labour with “a full-time quarry man and two part-time guys.”

The company turned to a profit of $230,000 in the year ended June 30, 2011, from a loss of $13,668 a year earlier.

All shareholders are asked to respond in writing to the lime works within 20 working days.

About 25 to 30 shareholders will be affected by the restructure. Koiterangi wants to reduce the number to 50 from 80 currently.

In 1992 the lime works, then a cooperative, was corporatised after advice from the Companies Office, which also urged it to tidy up its share register.

(BusinessDesk)

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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